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Niceola2
NFL Strikes $100B Media Rights Deal, Amazon Gets 'Thursday Night Football'
The NFL, TV’s biggest programming franchise in terms of revenue and viewership, has struck a new round of 11-year long-term deals with TV networks, according to the league. It will total a massive $100 billion in sports-right fees over the time span, according to reports.Three of the TV networks will witnessed an eye-popping 100% increase in yearly sports-rights fees -- Fox, NBC and CBS -- which had been anticipated. The exception being ESPN, which will see a 30% to 35% rise.Also expected, Amazon gains exclusive rights to “Thursday Night Football†for $1 billion per year, according to reports -- a package that will only be available to consumers with an Amazon Prime Video monthly subscription.NBC will continue to air “Sunday Night Football.â€Fox and CBS air Sunday afternoon NFL games. Fox has the NFC conference games, and CBS runs the AFC conference games. ESPN will continue to air “Monday Night Football.â€ESPN’s sister network, ABC, will get to air two Super Bowl games over the length of the 11-year deal, as well as some exclusive regular-season games. NBC, Fox, and CBS will each get to air three Super Bowl over the length of their deals.Key in the deal for TV networks is the right to air games simultaneously on their respective streaming platforms, including Peacock for NBCU, Paramount+ for ViacomCBS and Tubi for Fox.NFL Network will continue to televise a select schedule of exclusive NFL games on a yearly basis.In turn, NFL marketing partners can take advantage of those new streaming outlets with new messaging opportunities.An NFL spokesperson did not respond to inquiries by press time with regard to financial specifics around the new contracts.For the just-completed year, regular-season NFL games averaged 15.4 million Nielsen-measured viewers, down 7% from the year before.
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Niceola2
Bigger Than Basketball: Dove Celebrates Black Men Who Paint, Write And... Quilt
Dove Men+Care has been on a mission to focus on Black men -- so often revered only on the court -- as much more. Its newest effort, timed to basketball’s biggest moment, focuses on that multidimensionality in a new way.The campaign, scheduled to run throughout the NCAA March Madness games, zeros in on former NCAA basketball players who have moved on to careers in painting, academia, law -- and even quilting.The “Let’s celebrate Black men off the court†ads, created by Edelman, are scheduled to run on TV throughout March Madness, as well as on Dove's social media channels.They are based on Unilever’s research into the racial stereotypes that permeate much of society.Much of that is based on sports: When white men are shown a photograph of Black men, they are more likely to say he is an athlete than another profession.The Unilever-owned brand says the new work is an effort to “challenge limiting stereotypes and narrow portrayals.â€Dove says it chose March Madness, with its basketball-obsessed fanfare, to showcase athletes using their platforms to do more. It hopes to challenge not just the way white people see Black men, but the way Black men see themselves.Among them: Michael C. Thorpe, “a rising star in the world of quilting,†whose large-scale portraits have been acquired by the likes of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (shown above); Desmond Mason, a retired NBA player who is now a painter, and Onaje X.O. Woodbine, Ph.D., now a philosophy and religion professor at American University and author of "Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-Hop, and Street Basketball."Unilever says the Off-Court Champs will be featured in a series of virtual workshops with current NCAA student-athletes, offering advice about achieving career aspirations.Last month, Unilever released the results of “Bias Against Black Men – Understanding Perceptions and How They Impact Black Men & Boys," based on 3,000 people.The study finds that white men are 150% more likely to see Black men as criminals and two times as likely to say they are threatening and intimidating. It also demonstrated a decline in Black men’s self-perception between high school and college, making them less likely to describe themselves as smart, outspoken or leaders.And 37% of white men used one or more negative words to describe Black men, such as aggressive, threatening, dangerous or apathetic.The majority of the Black respondents have been called a racial slur.
